The investigative journalism agency Repórter Brasil launched the second edition of the tool that monitors how Congress representatives are positioned in relation to the environment agenda and rural workers. The “Ruralômetro 2022” shows that 68% of the representatives voted against the environment. 

That means that these are representatives who “presented bills and voted on legislative changes that harm environmental inspection, favor predatory economic activities, to make labor legislation precarious, to make access to social benefits difficult and to stop agrarian reform, among other setbacks pointed by socio-environmental organizations”, says the story that presents the project.

To measure the “rural fever” of parliamentarians, the tool gave each representative a score, ranging from 36⁰C to 42⁰C. The more aligned with the work of the ruralist caucus, the higher its temperature.

The evaluation was based on the analysis of 28 roll call votes and 485 bills presented in the current legislature.

Scheduled for August 26, the Federal Supreme Court postponed the trial of the temporal milestone to September 1st. The trial will analyze Extraordinary Appeal 1017365, about the suit for repossession of the Ibirama-Laklãnõ Indigenous Land, filed by the government of Santa Catarina state against the Xokleng people, which has the “thesis” of the temporal milestone as a premise. The trial will have an effect on the future of indigenous land demarcations in Brazil.  

Since August 22, more than 6 thousand indigenous persons from 176 peoples have gathered in Brasilia, the nation’s capital,  in the “Struggle for Life” camp to follow the trial and protest against the anti-indigenous agenda of the National Congress. Set up next to the Esplanade of the Ministries, this is the largest indigenous mobilization in 30 years, according to the Indigenous Peoples of Brazil Network (Apib).

For the new trial date, about a thousand activists will remain in Brasilia, now camped in front of the National Arts Foundation (Funarte), until September 2nd.

Over 60 bishops from the Amazon region signed a letter against bill 510/2021, which could change the rules of landownership in federal areas. Known as the “Land Grabbing Bill”, critics say that the bill will provide amnesty to land grabbers and encourage the theft of public lands.

“Land title regularization in Brazil is extremely relevant and requires society’s attention. But, in an emergency like the one we face with the pandemic, there is no urgency or legal demand that justifies the return of a bill which legislates over such a complex issue, since the current legislation (Law 11.952/2009) already aids small and medium producers”, says an excerpt of the document delivered to the president of the Senate, Rodrigo Pacheco.

Scheduled by Pacheco to be voted in April 28, the bill was the target of an online protest (#PL510No) on the eve of the vote, which was eventually postponed by the senator.

A BBC story revealed that protected lands in several Amazonian states are being sold on Facebook by environmental criminals. Pieces of the forest or newly cleared areas, including inside Conservation Units and indigenous lands, are among the lots advertised in the “Sale of residential properties” section of the social network’s buying and selling space, says the article.

To confirm the veracity of the ads, the BBC team met, claiming to represent buyers, with four sellers in Rondônia, the state that leads the advertisements of this type on the social network. Among the land for sale identified in the region are areas within the Uru Eu Wau Wau Indigenous Land and the Angelim Extractive Reserve. In Amazonas, an area of 1,660 hectares (equivalent to 1,660 soccer fields) in the Aripuanã National Forest, for the sum of R$ 3.2 million reais.

The case gave rise to the documentary “Amazonia for sale: the illegal market of protected areas on Facebook”, available on the network Youtube channel, and the crimes are now under scrutiny by the Supreme Court after an order of Justice Luís Roberto Barroso.

A study conducted by the Institute for Energy and Environment (IEMA) estimates that 212,791 residents of rural settlements, 78,388 indigenous people, 59,106 inhabitants of conservation units (UCs) and 2,555 quilombolas [Afro-brazilian traditional communities] living in the states of the Legal Amazon have no access to public electricity. According to georeferenced methodology developed especially for the survey, in total there are 990,103 excluded, which corresponds to 3.5% of the local population.

The survey, conducted between 2019 and 2020, points out Acre as the state with the highest percentage of people outside public electricity coverage, with 10%, followed by Amazonas (3.9%) and Amapá (3.1%). By total number of people, Pará is at the top of the list, with 409,593 in the dark.

“Access to electricity is fundamental for several reasons: it helps conserve vaccines and medicines; it makes it possible to study at night; it allows for the conservation of cooled food and water pumping; it is fundamental to have access to the internet and telephone; and, in addition, it can provide tools to preserve the local culture” says the IEMA’s technical note.

While Brazil’s land reform faces a harsh paralysis under Bolsonaro administration, rural parliamentarians seek, for 2021, to prioritize projects that would further deepen land concentration in the country, with bills that would weaken environmental licensing and make legal illegally occupied lands. The website UOL heard representatives of the Parliamentary Front for Agriculture and Livestock (FPA), known as the “beef caucus” in Congress, and points out that the group believes in “smooth sailing” for both projects because of the support of the new president of Congress, Arthur Lira, and Senate, Rodrigo Pacheco, both close to Bolsonaro.

In 2020, the press announced that Incra’s budget, the government agency responsible for agrarian reform, suffered a 90% reduction. Now, Incra has informed the Supreme Court that the Bolsonaro government “hasn’t made a single expropriation decree for agrarian reform and made the smallest acquisition of land for this purpose since 1995,” according to a Folha de S. Paulo article. Because of that, Bolsonaro administration has settled fewer families of rural workers, indigenous people and quilombolas than Michel Temer, Dilma, Lula and Fernando Henrique administrations.

The multimedia feature “Cova Medida” [Measured Graves], developed by Repórter Brasil, after a report by the Pastoral Land Commission (CPT), provides an overview of the violence against landless workers, indigenous and environmental activists in 2019. The survey portrays the 31 murders recorded in the first year of the Bolsonaro adminstration, marked by the struggle for agrarian justice and the impunity of their authors.

Territorial dispute (39%) and defense of indigenous territories (29%) are among the primary motivations for the crimes. There’s also reports of casulaties related to the defense of the environment, labor issues, denunciation of illegalities and even hate crimes. The victims are mostly men (93%), inhabitants of the Legal Amazon (87%), linked to the landless movements (35%) or indigenous people who died defending their land (25%).

After one year of deaths, 61% of investigations are in a halt, and there are no convictions, says the NGO.

According to CPT, there was a 23% increase in the number of conflicts in the field between 2018 and 2019. According to Repórter Brasil, the former Environment Minister, Marina Silva, points out the conniving posture of the president. “The assassins felt that they have a license to kill. They listen to the government’s speech against indigenous people, environmentalists, extractivists and feel right at home, while the victims are helpless and unprotected,” she said.

The increase coincides with the paralysis of the demarcation of indigenous lands – a “promise” made during the elections and which has been fulfilled – and the agrarian reform in Brazil by Jair Bolsonaro. For 2021, the budget of INCRA – the agency responsible for agrarian reform policy – has been reduced by 90%.

José Vargas Sobrinho Junior, human rights defender and lawyer for the survivors of the Pau d’Arco Massacre – a civil and military police action that killed ten landless workers in 2017 in Pará state – was arrested on the first day of the year, in the city of Redenção, points out a report by the NGO Repórter Brasil. The imprisonment happened because of an “extremely fragile” accusation, his lawyer says, and it was related to the disappearance of Cícero José Rodrigues de Souza, a politician. Vargas was released on January 25, but remains under house arrest.

The day after Vargas’ release, Fernando Santos do Araújo, considered a key-witness to the massacre, was executed in his home in the Jane Júlia settlement in the municipality of Pau D’arco. In a public letter, the Pastoral Land Commission (CPT), together with several organizations, points that his killing is an attack on all who fight for the right to land. “Fernando died. The shot that victimized him also made other victims. It hit all of us who fight for the right to land in Pará, the Amazon and in the country. His death forces us to ask: Who killed Fernando? Who had Fernando killed?”, says the text.

The civil and military police officers accused of the murder of the ten rural workers of the Pau d’Arco Massacre are still at free and on the streets while they wait for the trial.

In an ordinance published in the Federal Official Gazette (DOU) on December 3, the National Institute of Colonization and Agrarian Reform (Incra) presented the program “Titula Brasil [Acquiring Deeds Brazil]”, which outsources the process of land regularization of Union or Incra lands through a partnership with municipalities throughout Brazil, “with main emphasis on the nine states of the Legal Amazon”, according to a official statement from the government.

In 60 days the government will announce more details of the measure. So far, what is known is that it will be up to the municipality to nominate technicians who will carry out the survey, either municipal officials or external employees. Those chosen will receive an online training given by Incra and, once qualified, will act as outsourced employees of the Institute.

Servants, environmentalists, and congressional representatives – who have asked for the courts to annul the ordinance – have pointed out that the program facilitates land grabbing and threatens indigenous territories and quilombolas [Afro-brazilian traditional communities]. This would be another step by the government toward regulating illegally occupied lands, they warn, recalling the provisional measure known as “MP da Grilagem” [Land Grabbing Provisional Measure] published by Bolsonaro at the end of 2019, and later transformed into Bill 2.633/2020, still under analysis in the House of Representatives.

To the newspaper O Estado de São Paulo, the director of the National Confederation of Incra Servants’ Associations (Cnasi) classified the proposal as “disastrous”. “With this decision, all of Brazil’s land grabbing will be regularized in a short time. This will prevent new land reform settlement projects, new regularization of quilombola territories, new indigenous areas and new areas of environmental preservation. It is an inconsequential and disastrous decision for democratization of access to land and for the environment,” he said.

Another critical point of “Titula Brasil” is the possibility of remote inspection by geo-referencing. According to the G1 portal, an audit by the Comptroller General’s Office (CGU) pointed out that Incra did not carry out any face-to-face inspections in 2019, “essential to ensure that the regularized land is not the target of land theft or is in dispute among families”, say experts.

A group of Parakanã indigenous is accusing the Ministry of Women, Family and Human Rights (MMFDH), led by Damares Alves, of arbitrating and participating in a meeting with farmers in order to pressure chiefs to accept a proposal that includes the reduction of the Apyterewa Indigenous Territory, located between the municipalities of São Félix do Xingu and Altamira, Pará State, in the Amazon. In a letter of denouncement and protest, to which the newspaper O Globo had access, leaders reported that the meeting came as a surprise. They were told that they would discuss the invasion of land grabbers on indigenous lands. The meeting, with representatives of the ministry of Damares and farmers, was held on an irregular rural property located inside the indigenous land. In a statement to the Federal Public Prosecution (MPF), an indigenous person that attended the meeting reported that the indigenous people were detained for three days inside the property, without outside contact, being threatened by the landowners to agree to their requests to redefine the demarcation of the territory.

The letter points out the active participation of the federal government as a threatening agent and also says that the proposition to reduce the territory is unconstitutional. “[It was] Another trick of the Federal Government, allied with the invaders and the City Hall of São Félix, to cause internal division and confuse the leaders of the Parakanã people, with the eternal promise that the reduction of territory will resolve conflicts and bring peace to the Parakanã people,” says the text.

In a note sent to the newspaper, the MMFDH denies that they tried to force a treaty that would alter the Apyterewa Indigenous Territory”.

The campaign “United community preserves life” was launched in Santarém, Pará State, with the aim of preventing accidental forest fires that originate from controlled bush burning practised by small farmers and traditional

Amazon communities. The initiative offers guidance on how to prepare the soil with safety and how to get permits from related authorities and introducing techniques for cultivating without using fire. Many local stakeholders got together to run the campaign, including federal Institute Chico Mendes for Biodiversity Conservation (ICMBio) and its field programs at the Tapajos National Forest and Extractivist Reserve (Resex) Tapajós-Arapiuns, Pará state Civil Guard, the 4th Fire Department and community groups such as the Federation of the Tapajos National Forest, The Resex-Tapajoara Organization and NGOs such as Projeto Saúde e Alegria. 

 One year ago, forest fires in the Santarém and Alter do Chão regions gained international attention after a state police inquiry led to the preventive arrest of voluntary firefighters (brigadistas) that worked with environmental NGOs in the region.  In August 2020, after months of official investigation, the Federal Police dismissed the participation of the brigadistas in the forest fires.

The Climate Observatory (OC), a network of civil society organizations, analyzed data from the federal government’s Integrated Planning and Budget System and concluded that in the first eight months of 2020, the Ministry of the Environment executed just over 0.4% of its budget.

The OC survey released on September 11 shows that the budget execution of direct actions by the ministry until August 31 was R$105.000 out of a total of R$26.5 million. “The urban agenda, the minister’s priority, only spent R$18.000”, asserts the entity’s technical note. The government should have used the money to plan for environmental actions. For example, the biodiversity plan had a budget of more than R$1 million but spent only R$ 50.000 in the period. Other agendas, such as the promotion of studies on climate change, did not implement even a dime of its resources.

In addition, Bolsonaro administration cut funds from strategic areas for the prevention and control of forest fires in federal lands. Even with the increase of about 30% in burnings in the Amazon and the record fires in the Pantanal, the expected expenditure on contracting fire-fighting personnel fell from R$23.78 million in 2019 to R$9.99 million in 2020, a reduction of 58% according to official data from the Portal da Transparência [Transparency Portal].

In another measure related to federal spending and land use policies, Bolsonaro administration sent to Congress a budget proposal, in early September, for the National Institute for Agrarian Reform (INCRA) that practically zeroed the budget for actions aimed at landless populations and improvements in settlements in rural areas in 2021. Approximately 90% of the resources destined to the recognition and indemnification of quilombola territories and credit lines to settled families were cut; conflict monitoring and peacemaking actions in the countryside lost 82% of their funds.

The same proposal increases the amount destined to great landowners who suffered expropriation. Analysts indicate that the measure deepens the dismantling of INCRA, initiated under Michel Temer’s administration, and it could result in the extinction of agrarian reform in the country. During the election campaign, Bolsonaro called the MST (Movement of Landless Rural Workers) “terrorists”.

Tereza Cristina, Brazilian minister of Agriculture, Livestock and Supply, stated that her ministry will start a land regularization process in the Amazon via “remote monitoring and detection” systems. According to an article by the newspaper O Estado de S. Paulo, this will happen based on satellite imagery. “We have people working in many regions of the nine Amazonian States, but we will start with three”, she said.

According to the newspaper Estado de São Paulo, the government will evaluate over 93,000 irregular properties, with an average size of 280 hectares.

The regularization is the vice president’s Mourão, head of the Amazon Council, bet to curb deforestation. His argument is that it’s hard to hold accountability when the landowner is unknown.